The Foreign Policy of Nostalgia

2019 ◽  
pp. 107-132
Author(s):  
Edoardo Campanella ◽  
Marta Dassù

The politics of nostalgia worked its magic in the context of the Brexit referendum, where a single Yes or No vote was needed to make a difference, but it was hardly enough to manage the post-referendum environment, and it is certainly not a good compass for navigating the twenty-first century’s international system. Brexiteers fantasized about London’s future based on its glorious past, but never laid out a clear, practical, and pragmatic plan leading away from Brussels and towards their idealized temporal destination. The gap between restorative aspirations and political reality was simply too wide. Since June 2016, Brexiteers have flirted with a variety of proposals. They had no real clue where they were heading, with their options ranging from a “glorious Brexit”, a “red-white-and-blue Brexit”, a “hard Brexit” to a “soft Brexit”, a “clean Brexit”, a “jobs-first Brexit”, and even the “no-deal Brexit”. This chapter is aimed at dismantling the fallacies produced by nostalgic arguments, with a particular focus on the Commonwealth, the “Singapore plus” model and security policy.

Author(s):  
Maline Meiske ◽  
Andrea Ruggeri

Peacekeeping is one of the principal activities and foreign policy tools implemented by the international community to create and “maintain international peace and security.” Peacekeeping operations have grown in size and scope since the late 1980s and have included traditional peacekeeping, multidimensional peacekeeping, and peace enforcement. Peacekeeping operations pursue far-reaching objectives ranging from humanitarian assistance and the repatriation of refugees, over the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of former combatants, to liberal democratic assistance policies. The proliferation and increased scope of peacekeeping operations imply greater significance of peacekeeping as a tool of foreign policy. As such, peacekeeping operations are not deployed solely according to matters of global peace and security, but the deployment of and contribution to peacekeeping operations is increasingly shaped by individual state’s foreign and security policy considerations. An increasing literature studying the supply side of peacekeeping offers a broad range of arguments for why countries contribute to peacekeeping operations referring to realism, liberalism, alliance politics, or domestic politics. Foreign and security policy goals that states try to attain by participating in peacekeeping operations include status enhancement and influence in the international system, the reduction of the threat of conflict diffusion into its own territory and of a potential influx of refugees, or the stabilization of political relations, international trade, and alliance politics. The existing literature leaves some lingering questions and methodological challenges that require further attention. Of particular importance are questions related to the politics of tool choice and the effectiveness of peacekeeping as a tool of foreign policy. Methodological challenges exist regarding data availability and collection as well as the appropriate modelling of cooperation between different organizations conducting peacekeeping operations and the interdependence of countries’ decisions regarding their choice of peacekeeping as a tool of foreign policy.


Author(s):  
Ishrat Afshan Abbasi ◽  
Amir Jan ◽  
Muhammad Ramzan Kolachi

The presentation of ‘human security’ notion in 1990s signified transformation of international relations from nation-centred international system to people-centred international system. This concept not only redefined the term security, but altered the perceptions of both objects and subjects of threat as well. This development in the discourse of ‘security’ and the logic of linkage between national-interests and human-interests convinced states to reconsider and reframe their security policy. This article describes the notion of human security as a crux to chain the people across the world owing to the recognition of identical security challenges and responses. The concept of human security brought states closer and infused the sense of collaboration and cooperation to mitigate the threats to the security of human being. Methodologically, this paper presents qualitative and analytical study applying secondary data. This study presents the period 1995-2003 as a historical tenure regarding development of human security approach in the foreign policy of Japan. This research analyses how the Japanese governments under the leadership of some people-friendly Prime Ministers advocated the concept of human security and promoted it as a vital determinant of the foreign policy of Japan.


Author(s):  
Gregorio Bettiza

Since the end of the Cold War, religion has been systematically brought to the fore of American foreign policy. US foreign policymakers have been increasingly tasked with promoting religious freedom globally, delivering humanitarian and development aid abroad through faith-based channels, pacifying Muslim politics and reforming Islamic theologies in the context of fighting terrorism, and engaging religious actors to solve multiple conflicts and crises around the world. Across a range of different domains, religion has progressively become an explicit and organized subject and object of US foreign policy in ways that were unimaginable just a few decades ago. If God was supposed to be vanquished by the forces of modernity and secularization, why has the United States increasingly sought to understand and manage religion abroad? In what ways have the boundaries between faith and state been redefined as religion has become operationalized in American foreign policy? What kind of world order is emerging in the twenty-first century as the most powerful state in the international system has come to intervene in sustained and systematic ways in sacred landscapes around the globe? This book addresses these questions by developing an original theoretical framework and drawing upon extensive empirical research and interviews. It argues that American foreign policy and religious forces have become ever more inextricably entangled in an age witnessing a global resurgence of religion and the emergence of a postsecular world society.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (Fall 2021) ◽  
pp. 119-146
Author(s):  
Murat Yeşiltaş ◽  
Ferhat Pirinççi

This article analyses how Turkey should orient its grand strategy under the changing international order. It claims that the international order has undergone a significant transformation that is pushing Turkey to relocate its international position. First, the article analyses the characteristic features of the changing dynamics of the international system; it then sheds light on the new aspects of Turkey’s changing strategic landscape. By taking into consideration the transformation in Turkish foreign and security policy since the Arab Uprising, the article argues that Turkey needs a basis for determining what is important and what is not, what the primary threats to the nation’s interests are, and how best to serve those interests in a way that is attentive to the costs and risks it is willing to bear. Our aim in this article is to describe how Turkey can deal with the new reality of the international system and pursue and protect its important interests by developing a comprehensive grand strategy.


1990 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-20
Author(s):  
Larry W. Bowman

Relationships between U.S. government officials and academic specialists working on national security and foreign policy issues with respect to Africa are many and complex. They can be as informal as a phone call or passing conversation or as formalized as a consulting arrangement or research contract. Many contacts exist and there is no doubt that many in both government and the academy value these ties. There have been, however, ongoing controversies about what settings and what topics are appropriate to the government/academic interchange. National security and foreign policy-making in the U.S. is an extremely diffuse process.


2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 329-352
Author(s):  
Irnerio Seminatore

The emergence and evolution of the literature dealing with interdependence in the international System is looked into. An attempt is made to show its significance and main points as well as its implications. The debates on interdependence within the North-American political context are regarded as solutions to the preceding issues on dependence. Interesting passages are dedicated to the impact of the interdependence theory on the interpretation of the international system, as illustrated by two schools of thought in foreign policy (Kissinger-Brzezinski). Linkage of the tactical and strategic aspects to the economic and political interrelation of international relations, as put forward by policy makers, has brought to the fore the difficulties and limits of negotiation in the face of competition and in the aftermath of confrontation. This paper offers subtle, yet positive, conclusions on the use of the interdependance theory in international policy.


2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Agus Yusoff ◽  
Fakhreddin Soltani

2017 ◽  
pp. 11-18
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Miszczak

The aim of this article is to analyse the global and European foreign, security and defence policies of the Federal Republic of Germany and their implications for the broad international environment of Germany. Special attention is paid to the issues of Germany’s emancipation in the international order after the end of the East-West conflict, when it became clear that the regional conflicts and their transnational impact gained a new and multidimensional character for the German security policy. Given this evolution of the international system, Germany has gradually changed its former foreign and security policies. The state currently intends to take greater responsibility for international politics, which translates into a simultaneous increase in its political and economic power in the international arena. This new global role of the Federal Republic of Germany is manifested by the so-called White Paper on German Security Policy and the Future of the Bundeswehr approved on 13 July 2016. This document presents primarily the hierarchy of threats in today’s world, their definitions and attempts to neutralize them in compliance with German interests. Instruments to ensure a smooth achievement of this goal include the modernization of the German armed forces, the creation of intervention troops and their participation in multinational military operations conducted by NATO and the European Union.


2021 ◽  
pp. 43-59
Author(s):  
Tomasz Dubowski

In the discussion on the EU migration policy, it is impossible to evade the issue of the relation between this policy and the EU foreign policy, including EU common foreign and security policy. The subject of this study are selected links between migration issues and the CFSP of the European Union. The presented considerations aim to determine at what levels and in what ways the EU’s migration policy is taken into account in the space of the CFSP as a diplomatic and political (and subject to specific rules and procedures) substrate of the EU’s external action.


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